UN report on troop presence in Moliro awaited

A spokesman from the United Nations observer mission confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday that government troops appeared to have withdrawn from the strategic town of Moliro, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Katanga province, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Representatives from the observer mission (known by its French acronym, MONUC) had gone to Moliro on both 29 and 30 March to monitor the withdrawal of troops from the town, and had seen several members of the Forces armees congolaises (FAC), said the spokesman, Hamadoun Toure. The FAC members had told MONUC they were conducting a routine patrol and would leave by 17:00 local time on Sunday.

As of Tuesday morning, MONUC observers in Moliro had seen no FAC troops, Toure said, but added that a final report had yet to be submitted to confirm whether or not the FAC had withdrawn fully.

In a unanimous resolution adopted (Resolution 1399) on 19 March, the UN Security Council demanded the withdrawal of all troops from the town following its capture by rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) troops, on 16 March. The resolution also demanded a rebel withdrawal from Pweto, a government withdrawal from Kakaya and Yayama and the demilitarisation of Kisangani, all in eastern DRC.

Meanwhile, in Sun City, South Africa, where the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) has been taking place since 25 February, Azarias Ruberwa, the secretary-general of RCD, said on Monday that his party felt betrayed and that the RCD no longer felt obliged to cooperate fully with MONUC, AFP reported. He said the movement felt betrayed because MONUC had "not stopped the government from recapturing Moliro," the agency quoted him as telling journalists.

"It is therefore no longer a question of talking about Pweto and Kisangani," AFP quoted him saying, adding however, that the RCD delegation would remain in Sun City until the end of the ICD, on 12 April.

MONUC confirmed on Tuesday that government troops had withdrawn from Yayama the previous day.

In a separate development, a meeting of the heads of state signatories to the Lusaka peace accord is to take place on Wednesday in Lusaka, Zambia. In a statement issued on Monday, the facilitator of the talks, Ketumile Masire, expressed the hope that the regional leaders would take advantage of the summit to work out a synchronised withdrawal strategy for all foreign forces from the DRC.

The summit has been summoned by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.